Daniel Bryan Announces 2nd Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match

SmackDown general manager Daniel Bryan returned to his post Tuesday night, announcing he was stripping Carmella of her MITB briefcase and putting the five women back in a second ladder match on next week’s SmackDown Live.

WWE @WWE

.@WWEDanielBryan FINALLY found a solution… a SECOND Women’s #MITB #LadderMatch will take place NEXT WEEK on #SDLive! @CarmellaWWE https://t.co/DseY3txBzX

Carmella won the briefcase at the Money in the Bank pay-per-view when James Ellsworth climbed the ladder and dropped it down to her as she was sitting on the canvas. She will be allowed to compete in the second match, along with Tamina, Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair and Natalya.

From an outside perspective, it’s unclear if this was a planned booking decision all along or if WWE’s responding to the understandable outcry over the result. Many fans (andsome WWE Superstars) were upset about the optics of a man technically winning the first-ever women’s Money in the Bank match.

If the point was to get heat on Carmella and Ellsworth, it didn’t work. The heat was mostly on WWE bookers for what felt like a bit of a tone-deaf decision. This could be a way to retcon that result and give fans a proper Money in the Bank match.

Or this could have been WWE’s plan all along and everyone reacted before they saw the long-term picture. Either way, the whole thing has come off a little fumbly, so it’s good that WWE is just going to give us a full proper match.